What I Discovered After Spending $449,888.12 On Traffic in 2014

So I just got done going over everything with my Accountant and it looks like I spent $449,888.12 on Traffic last year.

I wanted to give you guys a great post on some of the things I’ve learned while I was testing and optimizing my one of my main Sales Funnels

Most of that money was spent on one Sales Funnel. I want to go over that mostly as if you can have one sales funnel that constantly makes you money with one traffic source that can’t be banned, you are going to do very well my friend.

First thing I would say is to really test everything.

So I have my main sales funnel that for around 2 years now has always been $7. It’s a biz oppy kind of angle.

I’ve been a big preacher of Ryan Deiss’s Tripwire method, I think it’s a great way to get new customers in the door.

But for some markets it might not be right. For the biz opp niche, I think a higher price point definitely needs to be in place if you want better buyers and want to do well on your backend.

A lot of the problems I ran into last year were excessive Chargebacks, Refunds and just very hard to get money on the backend.

So while I made good money on the funnel, it was a constant war everyday in my business between refunds, chargebacks, and getting people into a high value coaching program.

So what I’m trying to get at here is make SURE your overall customer value is going to be higher if you’re gonna do $7.

I recently changed to $47 and $97 and I am testing that. Better buyers, less headaches, more money in your pocket.

You NEED To Track Your Whole Funnel

I use Improvely to absolutely track everything. It is imperative that it is in your business if you are running Sales Funnels. You can track throughout the whole funnel with simple code.

I can know if I bought a 1,000 click solo from Charles on Tuesday, what the Revenue Per Person is, How many Upsells were taken, my Lifetime Value, Cost Per Acquisition by the end of that Solo Ad.

(For Some Reason From the Ad Tracking Level It Doesn’t Put In the Cost, But You Can Check It When You Click On Each Ad Tracking Link Individually)

You need to start thinking about the bigger picture, if you can take a 30% loss on your initial ad spend and be profitable in 14 days and have the cash flow to do that, then you need to start doing it!
If I was going to setup an IM Funnel for the mass market from scratch here’s what you’d need:

A big top to your sales funnel, so something along the lines of “How I Made $3,234.35 a Day For 366 Days Straight Without Selling My Own Product”

The top of the funnel needs to be broad if you’re going to work with a ton of traffic. It can’t be niche specific with Hundreds of Thousands of Visitors expected to visit.

A high quality VSL with great copy. You need to get great copy in order to really do well in the Solo Ad land.

If you can convert 4-5% of Solo Ad people into a $47-$97 buyer, you are well on your way.

If you want better quality buyers, focus on the tactics in the sales copy (Facebook Ads, Affiliate Marketing, List Building)

If you focus too much on a system/push button riches, you will have terrible buyers who will charge things back, refund, and complain.

After your initial FE I’d go to a 3 pay upsell of $97 with a popup on the 1 click upsell telling them to confirm their purchase before it actually was charged to reduce refund and chargebacks.

This upsell should be Done For You (Done for You Campaigns, Done For You Niches, Done For You Sales..etc..)

If the Front End offer is Facebook Ads Related, give them an overview of 6 campaigns that you’ve successfully promoted.

If it’s list building..same thing essentially.

For my 2nd upsell I’d do a software of some kind. Test out these numbers $297, $497, and $997.

If you can develop the copy to make go so hand in hand with what your Front End Offer is, you will convert well.

So on my one sales funnel I licensed a software called ReEngage that goes out and replies to all of my fan page posts comments. It works hand in hand with my Front End offer because the FE shows them how to build fan pages and monetize them with CPA Offers.

The value is there, the automation is there, if you can convey that (or if your copywriter can convey that) you can have a winner.

I’d look for a front end sales conversion of 4-5%, then an actual conversion rate of 15-17% on my upsell of collected money, and then another 7-8% on my 2nd upsell.

Now here’s where you can decide for yourself what you want to do..

If your funnel is still way below breakeven and you’ve been working hard on your FE trying to get it to convert a lot better, simply add another offer in your sales funnel.

You can do a simple $27 offer just to pick up a high percentage of people that have said no to your initial offers.

That $27 offer should be pushing them to another higher priced offer though.

So your initial sales funnel is over.

You should be sending them to a thank you page that is asking them if they want help setting everything up.

I would personally presell more of my results with the system, the results of my best students, and have an application form and a no thank you link at the bottom if they simply wanted to go to their product.

If on that initial sales funnel you are close to break even and are picking up quality applicants for a Mastermind, Coaching Program, whatever you’re selling over the phone…

You’re WAY ahead of everyone else.

When you start segmenting your buyers into certain lists, following up with them with new offers, and such you are going to be able to buy all the traffic you need.

The great thing about Solo Ads and having your own funnel is when you start to really become profitable, there’s people out there that you can buy 50,000-100,000 clicks a week from at .55 a click.

Every single week. No slaps, no bans, no worrying about managing an ad campaign. It’s all systemized and all you’re doing is looking to increase Average Customer Value throghout your funnel.

You do this by converting better on all your offers.

Your Front End, Upsells, and then finally your High Ticket Backend that you funnel everyone into.

So there you have it..

Good Front End Offer, Solid Funnel Behind It (Use Infusionsoft or ClickFunnels for the 1 click upsells)

Get the right buyers into your funnel (people that have money)

And you can go out and spend Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars on Traffic.

If you enjoyed the article, please share it!

– Mike Buontempo

If you’d like to work with me on setting up your own Sales Funnel that consistently turns traffic into Sales, Apply Below!

About The Author

Mike Buontempo is the Founder and CEO of Partner With Mike B. He's produced Millions of Dollars in Revenue for his own companies. He also Consults with High Level 6 and 7 Figure Companies on Traffic Generation, Sales Funnel Strategy, and Customer Value Optimization.

2 Comments on "What I Discovered After Spending $449,888.12 On Traffic in 2014"

Mike, this is some great insight into your campaign. The fact that you literally spill the beans and tell us what was working and what wasn’t is a breath of fresh air. Your content is rock solid and the amount of golden nuggets your deliver amazes me till this day. To the people reading this comment, you need to go back and read this article again. Thanks for being a great teacher.